21.0975

I must confess that I feel ashamed.

When I wrote about my goals for this year, I only talked about the race. The 42 kilometers in Utrecht became my center of gravity.

But there was another goal, mentioned only once — on the Princess Máxima Center donation page: €1,000.

If you follow this story closely, you will notice that most of the posts were orbiting the first goal. The training, the injuries, the weather forecasts, the uncertainty before the start. There was a lot happening.

Meanwhile, many people quietly decided to help move the project forward. Family, neighbours, parents from school, former colleagues, and even people I have never met.

On race day, the fundraising counter stood at exactly €515. Somewhere along the way, I accepted that the collection would probably stop there — at its 21st kilometer.

I allowed myself to think that this story was about my run. And since the run was finished, the whole project was finished as well. I wrote the final post and closed the chapter for this year.

Things changed today. A single contribution moved the counter to the 32nd kilometer — far enough to make the finish line visible again.

And with that came an important realization.

I am not the hero of this story.

The real heroes are the children fighting cancer, the parents standing beside them every day, and the doctors, nurses, researchers, and volunteers who refuse to give up on them.

The marathon was only a vehicle.

Forty-two kilometers, a few posts, and countless conversations were simply a way to carry a question from one person to another:

“Would you help the Princess Máxima Center continue their work?”

Everything else — the training, the race, the medal, the finish line — was secondary.

So the story is not over yet.

The fundraising has reached the 32-kilometer mark. The finish line is visible, but there are still a few kilometers left to cover.

And it would feel wrong to stop before the race is truly finished.

From my perspective, the race was never measured in kilometers. It was measured in the number of people who decided to help.

AI Coach